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Nick Allen

The Belize home of the anti-virus software pioneer John McAfee, who has gone into hiding after the murder of his neighbour, Gregory Faull. Photo: Reuters/Henry Romero

Los Angeles: The prime minister of Belize has described John McAfee, the technology millionaire who has gone into hiding after the murder of his neighbour, as "paranoid and bonkers".

Mr McAfee, 67, has refused routine questioning after Gregory Viant Faull, 52, was shot dead in his beachside villa on Ambergris Caye, an island off Belize, at the weekend.

The home of the US businessman Gregory Faull, who was found dead at his island mansion in Belize on November 11. Photo: Reuters/San Pedro Sun

The businessman, who is constantly changing locations and telephones, has denied involvement in the killing. He claims the Belize police are corrupt and want to frame him, extort money, or kill him.

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Dean Barrow, the Prime Minister, has expressed doubts about Mr McAfee's mental state, saying: "I don't want to be unkind to the gentleman, but I believe he is extremely paranoid, even bonkers.

"Mr McAfee is a person of interest. His reaction to being a person of interest is, to put it very mildly, hugely exaggerated. He is now, I think, visiting all sorts of calumnies on our country, and on our security forces, and his behaviour is to be deprecated. Come forward, man."

John McAfee, who has gone into hiding. Photo: Reuters

Appealing to Mr McAfee to come out of hiding, he said: "It is now hugely public and you surely do not expect anyone to believe that the police want to kill you, so that if you come in for questioning you are going to be murdered. That is utter and complete nonsense.

"The spotlight is very much on this issue. Come in and have the police do their job and if it is that you are truly innocent, you are free to go."

More details of Mr McAfee's bizarre life and state of mind emerged in an online journal he posted two months ago. In it he described how he had adopted a personal harem of women, one of whom was described as an assassin.

The American businessman Gregory Faull, whose body was found at his home in Belize this week. Photo: Reuters/San Pedro Sun

In a series of interviews with Wired, the technology magazine, in the past few days, Mr McAfee said he was now accompanied by a young woman.

He accused Mr Barrow of "running away with the country's constitution" and described Belize as a "pirate haven".

Mr McAfee added: "If I had overridden the constitution to the degree Barrow has, if I had the power of the gang suppression unit, he would be behaving bonkers too."

Police investigating the killing of Mr Faull have charged Mr McAfee's bodyguard with possessing a firearm and ammunition without a licence.

Mr McAfee, a British-born American who created McAfee antivirus computer software, was once worth about $100 million, but in 2009 he said his fortune had dwindled in the financial crisis.

Last month Mr Faull, a retired builder from Florida, filed a complaint against Mr McAfee with local officials. He claimed Mr McAfee's security guards were walking on the beach at night with shotguns and that his "vicious dogs" were attacking people.

Last Friday four of the dogs were poisoned. Mr McAfee said he did not believe Mr Faull was responsible and accused the Belize police of killing the animals.

In a separate interview with the Associated Press, Mr McAfee acknowledged that he had differences with Mr Faull.

"I barely knew him, I barely spoke 10 words to him in the last three years," Mr McAfee said, speaking on a mobile phone from an undisclosed location. "Certainly he was not my favourite person and I was not his."